Simcha Haber

"You need to lean for Matzah and you need to lean for wine...Some people say in the name of Rav Nachman you need to lean for the first 2 cups and others say in the name of Rav Nachman you need to lean for the last 2 cups." (Gemara Pesachim 108a) The Gemara concludes that due to this argument one should lean for all four cups. Tosafot (sv "Kulhu") on the same page asks 2 questions: First, if you forget to lean cups do you have to go back and drink again while you lean? Second, if we conclude that you do go back, could one redo the 3rd cup (as drinking between the third and fourth cups is not permitted)?

The Rush (Simun 20) says if one forgets to lean when he drinks the first two cups he should go back and drink, but if he forgets to lean for the 3rd or 4th cup he doesn't go back and drink. Why is this? He answers that one would not go back for the third and forth cups because people might suspect you of adding on an extra cup. But why wouldn't we have this same concern with regard to the first two cups? He answers that, since one is permitted to drink during the meal, if he needs to redo the first or second cups, people will simply assume that he is drinking them as part of the meal.

However, Rambam (Hilchos Chametz Umatza Perek 7 Halacha 6-8) seems to argue with the Rush. When talking about leaning, Rambam uses the word "Tzarich," while by the 4 cups of wine he uses the word "Chayav." It would seem from this that the Rambam holds that leaning and drinking the four cups are two different mitzvot. We also know that "obligated" is a stronger word than "need," thus proving that he believes that the drinking of the four cups are more important than the leaning part of the 4 cups.

It seems that we can also bring a proof to Rambam the Gemara itself. From the very fact that the Gemara debates whether to go back for the first cups or the last cups, we can see that leaning and drinking are two separate mitzvot.

Another proof is the story about the Rabbis in Bnai Barak that we read in the Haggadah. It says they were leaning the whole night, obviously meaning that they were not only leaning for the four cups. Once again, a proof that the two mitzvot are different.

A third proof comes from a Gemara in Berachot (37b) which says that if a person finds an olive size piece of Matzah on the floor of the Beit Hamikdash from the Karbon Mincha and eats it he fulfills the Mitzvah of Matzah. Since one cannot sit in the Beit Hamikdash (and thus cannot lean), and since the Gemara equates the mitzvah of Matzah to the mitzvah of wine, we can conclude that leaning and drinking are two different mitzvot.

But this whole argument in the Gemara raises a very obvious question: The idea of leaning is a Rabbinic decree and there is an argument in the Gemara as to which cups require us to lean. While by a Rabbinic argument we are usually lenient, here, we are in fact more stringent!

The Ran poses this question, offering two answers. First, he says that we should lean for all of them because doing so is not so hard. Then he gives a logical answer: since the Gemara gives good reasons to lean for both sets, we don't have the power to choose only one set because "Amai nekeil b'hani tfeh m'hani?" "Why be more lenient with these than with these?" So we have to lean for all of them, because by being lenient, he would end up not leaning at all.

Simcha Haber is a junior at TABC